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Munich - Today, patients in Europe now have access to the most accurate and timely genetic testing available for hereditary cancers.  This is due to a leader in genetic testing, Myriad Genetics, efforts to expand internationally by opening a laboratory in Munich to serve European patients and healthcare providers. 

Foto: Prof. Horst Domdey (Bio^M, the regional Biotech Cluster Organization), Gary King (President Euopa Myriad), Dr. Peter Meldrum (CEO Myriad Genetics Inc.)

Myriad is a leading molecular diagnostic company based in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The Company cites its mission as, “making a difference in patient’s lives through the discovery and commercialization of transformative tests to assess a person’s risk of developing disease, guide treatment decisions and assess risk of disease progression and recurrence.”   Originally founded in 1991, Myriad has spent the last twenty years investing in the education of patients and health care providers on the role genes play in hereditary breast, colon, endometrial, ovarian, pancreatic, and skin cancers. 

Today, Myriad is building on this strong tradition by extending their mission to Europe, in an effort to broaden the Company’s geographic footprint and provide critical information to more patients and healthcare providers.  The Company plans to offer its BRACAnalysis® test for genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer, its Colaris® test for genetic predisposition to colon and endometrial cancer, and the Colaris AP® test for genetic predisposition to polyposis colon cancer. In addition to the laboratory in Munich, the Company has set up its European headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland and regional offices in Paris, France, Madrid, Spain, and Milan, Italy.

Myriad’s CEO, Pete Meldrum, was on-hand to open the laboratory and offered the following comments on the event, "Opening the laboratory in Munich is a demonstration of Myriad’s commitment to patients and physicians throughout Europe. This important step will allow us to enhance the speed and quality of genetic testing available to patients and physicians in an effort to further the Company’s mission of making a difference in patient’s lives globally.”

The market need for Myriad’s tests stem from the inability of current testing to provide an answer in an actionable timeframe to influence clinical decision making, including determining the appropriate surgery for a patient. This is due to the long term around times of tests currently available in Europe.  Myriad will provide testing results in less than two weeks, as compared to an average of six months. 

Currently, results of BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 sequencing are not available in time for a physician to use the information to determine the appropriate surgery for a patient.  Through sequencing the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, the test provides insight on a woman's risk for breast and ovarian cancer and recurrence of breast and ovarian cancer. A woman who tests positive with the BRACAnalysis test has, on average, up to an 87% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer during her lifetime and on average, up to a 44% risk of developing ovarian cancer.  With the introduction of the BRACAnalysis test, a physician will have information on patient’s predisposition to hereditary cancer in time to influence surgery, thereby more effectively treating a patient for her cancer.   Additionally, the quality of the answer will be improved with the BRACAnalysis test as it has the lowest variant of unknown mutation rate at 3 percent, as compared to 20 to 40 percent in currently available testing.

This higher quality of test offering is also critical for patients with Lynch Syndrome which is associated with hereditary colon and endometrial cancers.  With the introduction of the COLARIS test, healthcare providers and patients will have access to the highest quality test to identify genetic mutations in the mismatch repair genes MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, EPCAM, and PMS2.  A patient who tests positive with the COLARIS test has up to an 82% chance of developing colorectal cancer and up to a 71% chance of developing endometrial cancer.

The Company also plans to offer its Prolaris® test, a prognostic to assess the aggressiveness of a man’s prostate cancer is, to the region and has initiated clinical trials to demonstrate the clinical utility of the test in the European population.  Prolaris is a new prognostic test which directly measures tumor cell growth characteristics for stratifying the aggressiveness of disease in prostate cancer patients.  The test utilizes an RNA expression signature of cell cycle progression genes to directly measure the tumor aggressiveness at the molecular4 level and is the only test of its kind to be able to accurately predict a patient’s risk of disease progression and help physicians to better define treatment decisions for their patients.

Myriad strives to make a difference in patient’s lives and the communities in which it participates.  Importantly, the investment in this new laboratory in Munich will further their mission here in the European continent through enhancing the quality of genetic predisposition testing available to patients and healthcare providers. 

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